Mac Death and Resurrection

As I sit here on a Sunday afternoon listening to Aaron Copland through my vintage Luxman stereo receiver (Luxman once was the "home" audio component of Alpine) and typing on a dying Macbook Pro, I wish to thank one particular You Tube contributor.  When the GPU on my motherboard fried and stopped working, I researched quite a bit what to do.  The consensus among computer technicians was to take out the motherboard and heat the chip with a heat gun for five minutes.  Somehow baking the chip after it all ready had overheated and failed breathes new life in the GPU.  Statistic said eight out of ten Macbook Pros could be brought back to life with this method.  I made an appointment at the Apple Store in Raleigh, but after reflecting decided not to go.  The manager with whom I spoke on the phone quoted me an estimate of $200.00 to replace the GPU.  His conversational skills were ackward, and while he entered my information into his computer barely could he answer my questions.  The nature of Apple Stores it seems is manic energy.  They are like nightclubs, not a place to seek or find thoughtful computer repair.  I opted out of the appointment, because after watching a few computer repair You Tube videos, and reflecting on the past death of my iBook, I decided it was not worth it.  I would spend a lot of money for nothing.  Instead I took the hard core route, and followed the simple instructions of one You Tube Contributor.  Obviously he knew what he was talking about.  He gave you a command to start you Mac in "single user mode" and input UNIX codes to disable the external GPU.  I had to transcribe his codes both by listening to his accented voice and watching his computer screen.  I was familiar with the language because I studied computer music at OSU.  It has been a long time ago, more than twenty years ago.  I understood the language.  You create a folder for disable extensions, and move the drivers and supporting files for the external GPU into it.  When the computer re-boots, it will be forced to use the onboard GPU.  ???  What?  The graphic functions of the laptop will be reduced, but it will boot and run.  Wow!  The alternative was a dead ass Macbook Pro.  I inputted his codes and re-booted and voila!  Here I sit typing on what would have been a useless computer.  It could have been quite a soul searching scenario.  Pretty expensive computer quits working.  I only paid $900.00 for the machine, and it gave me three years of solid use with a large external Hewlett Packard monitor.  I couldn't complain.  I got my use out of it, so no sour grapes.  The sour grapes were thwarted by this You Tube contributor, who allowed me to keep my machine running while I purchased another computer and transferred my programs to it.  I knew all along I should have bought a Mac Pro, but them internets kept saying a  Macbook Pro would run Pro Tools or Digital Performer.  It did ironically, until the GPU died.  The 7200 rpm hard drive still is running.  The lesson to be learned is that the Radeon chip was a budget component.  Tim Cooke knew this, and his consent to use this chip in Steve Job's high level creation was inspired by greed.  More dinero for Apple, more headache for the consumer.  As we speak my Macbook from 2005 still is running unabated.  It sits quietly in sleep mode, and without a hitch comes to life when I lift its lid.  There was a class action lawsuit over the late 2011 Macbook Pro, and assuredly the eBay seller who sold me this computer knew it.  No matter.  I have gotten my money out of it, learned a lesson, and was forced to use my dormant computer skills to build a far more worthy music workstation.  I will knock on wood that my words are not in vain, and my "new" machine will continue to tool away streamlined and turbocharged.  So far so good.  If and when the computer puts itself to sleep, there always seems to be a glitch with its awaking.  I have had to re-start once, because of this.  I do look forward to the relay clicking when I hit a key and hearing the drives spin up.  There is no substitute for quality engineering.